Aftermath
by Literaturefangirl
Summary: In the aftermath of the catastrophe in Metropolis, Superman contemplates what he will do with General Zod's body and makes a startling discovery in the Arctic (Man of Steel universe).
1. Final destination

**Aftermath**

Chapter One

** Final destination**

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Superman and Lois Lane sat on one of the benches in a train station in Metropolis quietly, not saying a word, trying to compose themselves.  
Many thoughts and emotions running through their minds.

People in the train station station were muttering with fear, as they rushed out of the train station fearing for their lives.  
Some lingered to get a view of the damaged station with fallen pillars and grit from broken bricks littering the floor.

But as soon as they saw the dejected Superman and Lois Lane sitting by General Zod's body, the few that remained left the train station quickly, not wanting to be involved in such a scene.

"What are you going to do with his body?" Lois Lane turned her head and asked Superman quietly, interrupting his troubled thoughts.

"I don't know yet." Superman replied with a similar tone.

Bury him? Burn him to ashes? Clark hadn't given it any thought yet.

So many events had happened during the past few days, he had barely had time to come to terms with his alien heritage, to deal with the invasion of Earth and take down the most powerful adversary he had ever faced.

It had seemed like an insurmountable task, but now that the present moment had arrived, that the Earth was saved. He could hardly believe it or even begin to think of future plans.

"I didn't want things to be this way. If I had just—" Superman shook his head to the side in frustration.

"There was nothing you could have done Clark! He was a lost cause..." Lois gesticulated to emphasize her point.

"My father believed that every person had the potential to be a force for good, but he was _wrong_." Superman said almost bitterly, frowning as he clenched his fist.

Lois placed a hand on his arm and said, "Nobody's perfect Clark."

"I _killed_ a living being Lois!" Clark retorted and gestured to General Zod's body.

"Living _beings..." _Clark turned his head, seeing the survivors scrambling across the street and the rubble of the buildings he had destroyed, the smashed cars and the lives that had been lost in the process.

"But so did he! If you hadn't killed him, he would have killed millions more. You did the right _thing_." Lois insisted.

"Did I really Lois?" He stared at her coldly. Her gaze remained and Superman saw the kindness in her eyes, her absolute faith in him.

He had taken a leap of faith for the human race and now so had taken one for him. If she truly believed that he was a force for good, then he should believe it too.

"I know what I must do now." Superman announced.

Superman got up and walked over to General Zod. His eyes still wide open. Superman closed his eyes briefly from the sight.

It wasn't easy for him to see the dead body of another, let alone one he _knew_ he had been directly responsible for.

Superman bent down and picked up General Zod's body in his arms and said to Lois, "I'll be back soon."

Superman took off swiftly, Lois Lane watched him fly in the sky until he was no longer visible in the horizon. She sighed quietly, her face filled with sadness, because she truly understood what Clark was feeling like at the moment.

If Superman had any chance of salvaging anything from the scout ship and to keep it as his only token of Krypton, then he needed to move it away from Metropolis, lest it be destroyed by the military, taken apart by scientists or disposed of in a landfill.

It would also serve the purpose of being a harsh reminder of what he had happened and what Superman must never allow to occur again.

After searching the city for a while, Superman found what he was looking for; a smoke trail and with it the Kryptonian scout ship.

Although still burning, heavily damaged and embedded in a building, the ship was still intact. Superman created an entry point my melting through the exterior of the ship with his heat vision. Once he had melted a hole sufficient in size he entered the gigantic Kryptonian scout ship.

He walked for a while, stepping over debris and watching where he stepped to avoid protruding metal, he coughed from all the smoke in the atmosphere.

He soon came upon the group of containment pods, containing the corpses of the Kryptonian travelers.

He had noticed that one of the pods had already been opened, so he walked over to it and placed General Zod's body in the empty pod.

Superman was about to close the lid of the pod and leave, but not before looking at the General one last time.

Superman looked at the General with a grim face, thinking of all the death, destruction and sorrow the General had caused.

But something in his conscience wasn't allowing him to retain this countenance, his face softened slightly. Lois' words, his father's beliefs, General Zod's belief that he was only performing his duty for the good of Krypton all led him to a conclusion.

Whether General Zod was a bad man or not, it was Superman's purpose to rise above the rest and do what was right; to honour the fallen no matter who they were.

Before he closed the pod, Superman placed his fingers on General Zod's eyelids and pulled them down, as a sign of respect to the last remaining member of his kind.

Superman closed the lid of the pod, sealing General Zod in it forever.

Superman than walked away from the pod and left the ship, he then lifted it up with all his strength grunting with exertion and flew with it back to the arctic. Where it would remain forevermore.

Superman then flew back to the ruins of Metropolis with a determined expression on his face, as fast as he could.

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**Thank you very much for reading my story, I hope you enjoyed it. Even if they are just a few words long, I _always_ appreciate your reviews.  
**

**Big thanks to The Wayfaring Strangers and Rachel for helping me flesh out my story.  
**


	2. Discovery

**Aftermath**

Chapter Two

** Discovery**

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**Thanks to all of you who read and reviewed the previous chapter and this one.  
**

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Clark Kent was sitting at a kitchen table in his home, enjoying a quiet evening with his mother Martha Kent. Clark was holding a mug of coffee between his hands, an empty tea cup stood on the table beside Martha and two glasses and some dirty plates and cutlery from the evening's meal remained on the table.

Clark looked down at the bitter brown liquid in his mug, taking some time to think, before telling his mother in a subdued voice, "I searched the ship again, but I didn't find anything..."

Martha nodded her head to show her support for her son, encouraging him to continue.

"I thought that if I searched it enough, I might find something, but I just don't know what to do anymore Ma, should I even keep looking?" Clark asked his mother, truly needing her guidance.

"Do you still believe that you'll find something there?" Martha Kent asked him.

"Yes, but..." Clark frowned, almost unsure of himself.

"If you still believe that it's worth searching, then don't stop. You have to _believe_ in yourself Clark." Martha squeezed her son's hand and smiled.

Unable to resist the smile, Clark stopped frowning and smiled back, he got up from his chair, kissed his mother on the cheek and said, "Thanks Ma."

Clark then left the kitchen and entered his room to retire for the night, the door squeaking as it closed.

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The next morning Martha Kent went outside Clark's room and opened the door and said "Good morning Clark."

Clark did not reply, so Martha opened the door but found that Clark was not in his room. His bed was also unmade.

Martha smiled at this, and said out loud to him, "Good luck son."

In the Arctic, Clark was having no such luck, he was storming away from the scout ship with a frustrated expression on his face. Unable to accept that there was nothing left for him to be found.

Clark dropped to his knees and punched the ground hard in frustration.

Unfortunately Clark had punched the ground so hard, that he had unsettled a layer of snow that had been covering a very deep crevasse.

The snow plummeted down, taking Clark along with it. The snow eventually crashed down at the bottom of the crevasse.

The bottom of the crevasse was cold and dark and although the soft snow had somewhat cushioned Clark's fall, Clark was left a little dazed from the impact.

Normally Clark would simply fly out of the crevasse the way he came, but this instance he did not do so straight away. The freezing temperature at the bottom of the crevasse, was making him acutely alert.

Somewhere in this crevasse, Clark could hear something making a dull rhythmic sound. A drill perhaps? Or maybe _someone's heartbeat_, Clark thought.

So Clark decided to investigate, he walked between the narrow edges of the crevasse and walked closer towards the source of the sound.

Although the bottom of the crevasse was dark and had a limited light source, there was enough light for Clark to see the gleaming ice around him, like a beautiful, fortress of ice.

After walking for a brief time Clark came upon a big frozen pool of water, within it Clark could see a dark mass.

Clark then used his heat vision to melt the ice, the ice making a loud hissing sound as it evaporated from the intense heat.

Once Clark had finished melting most of the ice, Clark saw what had been hidden in the ice. It was a woman!

The woman was unconscious, she had a pretty face with small burns upon it, her blonde hair covering some of it. She wore a slightly scorched dark suit, not unlike a Kryptonian suit that General Zod had worn.  
What was most fascinating and startling to Clark was the emblem on her suit, it was the emblem of the El family, making this woman a relative of Clark!

Clark's eyebrows raised, he opened his mouth wide in disbelief. For most of his life, he had always believed that he was the last of his kind from a long lost civilization, but now he wasn't alone anymore.

Clark put two fingers on the woman's neck to check her pulse. It was weak, but she was still alive. Clark smiled in relief and then lifted the woman up and placed her in his arms.

He then used his heat vision to widen the gap in the crevasse and he took off into the sky. He flew as fast as he could, back to Kansas. Clark soon arrived home and knocked on the door. Dusty the Kents' dog barked at Clark's sudden arrival.

"I'm coming!" Clark heard his mother cry out. Martha opened the door, when she saw who it was she gasped.

"Ma. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Clark said with a smile, his unconscious relative in his arms.

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**This chapter is dedicated to Carlos Diaz III, because without him this chapter would not have existed.**


	3. Family

**Aftermath**

Chapter Three

**Family**

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**Thank you so much for your support guys, I never thought that my fan fiction would be received this well!**

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Martha's eyebrows shot up in surprise, her mouth opened wide when she saw the young woman in Clark's arms. She stepped outside the doorway and held the door screen in place to allow Clark to enter the house.

Clark placed his hand on the back of the woman's head, to prevent her head being bumped, he then carefully brought the young woman into the house.

Clark then took the woman into the guest room and placed her on a bed. She lied still on the bed.

Clark then left the room and entered the kitchen, his mother was there awaiting news from Clark about the woman's condition.

"How is she?" Martha asked him.

"She's still unconscious." Clark replied. Martha nodded, saddened that their guest was unwell.

Noticing this, Clark asked his mother gently to do something for him, to keep her mind off things. "Ma, can you please make some tea for us?"

"Of course." Martha smiled and went to get some tea bags from the cupboard. Clark then took a clean piece of cloth and rinsed it with water from the tap in the kitchen sink. He wrung the cloth to squeeze excess liquid from it and then took it with him to the guest room.

Beside the bed the woman was occupying, resided a wooden table and a chair. Clark pulled the chair from under the table and placed it closer to the bed.

He sat down on the chair and wiped some blood off the woman's face with the damp cloth.

"Ouch!" The young woman frowned and exclaimed in pain as the moist cloth stung her skin.

"I'm sorry." Clark apologized. His sharp features softening into a kind expression.

_Who is this man? And what am I doing here? _The woman wondered, she observed Clark's face carefully, trying to determine his intentions.

"Who are you anyway?" The woman asked cautiously, the man wore a familiar garment to the ones she had seen on Kypton, but he was a stranger to her. Did her know her? She wondered.

"My name is Kal-El." Clark answered with a small smile.

_He seems friendly enough. _The woman thought.

"I'm Kara Zor-El." The woman introduced herself.

Kara frowned and rose suddenly as she realised that the excitement of meeting another Kryptonian, had almost made her overlook a very important fact.

"Wait! You're from the house of El? Do you have any news about my parents?" Kara's face broke into a smile, at the thought that the man was part of her family and could tell her news of her beloved parents, she had left such a long time ago.

"I'm sorry Kara, they're gone and so is Krypton. It was destroyed years ago. You and I are the only ones left." Clark looked down, struggling to face her and gravely informed her of the bad news.

It had been bad enough for Clark when he had discovered that his planet had been destroyed and it pained him to have to be the bearer of such bad news to another.

Kara's smile faltered, her expression turning into a perplexed frown. "But I only left a short while ago! How is that possible?!"

"You've been gone a long time Kara, _thousands_ of years even. I found you frozen in the Arctic." Clark explained to her.

"The Arctic? Kal... what planet are we on anyway? And why is it so hard to breathe here?" Kara asked with bewilderment, the alien air and the many questions running through her mind, no doubt the cause of it.

"We're on a planet called Earth, it has a different environmental composition to Krypton." Clark informed her.

"I just can't believe it... our home... destroyed. I'll never see my family again."

A single tear slid down Kara's cheek.

"I know it's hard for you Kara, but there's still hope. You can be part of _our_ family." Clark reassured her.

"_Our_ family?" Kara said in a tone that invited an explanation.

"Oh that's right! There's someone I'd like you to meet. I'll be right back, please excuse me." Clark excused himself.

After Clark left the room, Kara smiled to herself. _He's so polite, it's cute._

A few moments later and the door to the guest room opened and Clark accompanied by Martha entered the room.

"Kara, this is my mom, Martha." Clark introduced his mother. His face looking the most joyful that Kara had ever seen it.

"Hello Kara, I'm pleased to meet you." Martha greeted Kara warmly.

"Likewise!" Kara replied in a similar tone, happy to have a motherly presence in the house, as well as meeting another member on what she would grow to accept as her family.

Suddenly the family dog, Dusty rushed into the room wagging his tail and trying to climb up the bed, eager to give the stranger his affections.

"Dusty! No! Sit down!" Martha scolded him.

"It's OK, I don't mind." Kara got up from the bed and bent down to allow Dusty to sniff and lick her hand.

"Kal! What kind of animal is this?" Kara asked as she ruffled Dusty's fur.

"He's a dog. We keep them as pets on earth." Clark told her.

"You'll have lots of time to find out more about earth but I'll go fetch the tea now, if you'll excuse me." Clark left the room and went into the kitchen, leaving Kara with Martha to talk together.

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**I was really tempted to put a Krypto reference in there, but I would rather not have Kryptonians be familiar with canines in this universe.**


End file.
